Wallet & Apple Pay Missing in Settings. Wallet App is There But No Place To Enter Cards.
I have an iPhone 5s running iOS 12.1.2 that I basically use just to run my Apple Watch.
When I initially set it up out of the box last Spring (running iOS 11), the Wallet & Apple Pay section of SETTINGS was present and functional like normal. I was able to add all of my credit/debit cards and used them with my Apple Watch on a regular basis.
I had poor battery performance on the iPhone 5s right from the beginning and suffered along thinking I needed a new battery or warranty replacement until recently, when an Apple Tech suggested my old iCloud info (2016) might be the cause so I should factory reset the iPhone and set it up as a brand new device.
I did this and it resolved the poor battery & performance issues. All was good - so I thought.
A week went by before I realized I hadn’t set up Apple Pay all over again and when I went to do it I noticed the "Wallet & Apple Pay" section of the Settings was missing on the iPhone. It just isn’t there AT ALL.
The Wallet APP however was on the iPhone...hiding in the UTILITIES folder.
I opened the Wallet App on the iPhone, thinking I’d just add my cards back in the App (like, what’s the difference anyway) and to my surprise and frustration, there was no place, no option or method to add cards.
A long time ago I’d signed up for/activated that reloadable "Apple Pay Cash" and that was the only thing displayed along with the Apple Pay Cash Card balance and scannable QR Code.
After many unsuccessful attempts at creative problem solving, I was able to add back & activate my credit & debit cards to Apple Pay on my Apple WATCH by opening the Apple Watch App and clicking "Wallet & Apple Pay". But Apple Pay still is not working, is not available, and is now not a feature of my iPhone.
So grrrrr!
I *just* completed all the customization on my iPhone following the factory reset ..... like signing into and setting up all the Apps, importing and downloading my music, recreating all my playlists, setting up all the Touch ID fingerprints, getting the display brightness just right, editing the control center options and notification screen widgets. You know! 😑
So I don’t want to Factory Reset the phone again, starting all over from scratch, and especially if this issue is just going to persist anyway (as reading the experiences of others seems to indicate will happen).
I have read all the posts I can find of others who have experienced this same problem and cannot find a solution. I can tell you that I have checked the common reasons for the Wallet & Apple Pay General Settings feature to disappear and none of them apply to my situation:
- My Region is now, and has always been, in the United States, where Apple Pay is a supported feature. Furthermore, I have verified that my region is correctly set to "United States" and language is "English (US)" in all relevant areas of Settings.
- "Wallet and Apple Pay" is not restricted in the "Screen Time" feature of Settings nor is it blocked under "Content & Privacy Restrictions".
- The Wallet and Apple Pay feature is completely missing in "Settings" - this section is blank where it used to be/should be.
The Wallet APPLICATION is on my iPhone, however it has no place for debit.credit cards, no menu, no Settings, and no feature or method to add cards. Opening the Wallet App merely displays the Apple Pay Cash (virtual) Card with balance & scannable QR code.
After spending a significant amount of time researching this issue, I was surprised to learn how many users experienced the sudden disappearance of their Wallet & Apple Pay in Settings and the only resolutions occurred in the very few instances where the user was using an incorrect Region (a region restricted for Apple Pay).
For everyone else, the issue was just left unresolved.
Clearly it is a bug in a release of iOS 11, as over 90% of the posts asking for help didn’t begin until 2018.
Does anyone have a solution.......or at least some insight into the cause so I could come up with one?
iPhone 5s